


are we instruments of fate?

by thequeenofokay



Category: Reign (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 08:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5085088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequeenofokay/pseuds/thequeenofokay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the time when he is a king and she is a queen. This is not the first time Mary has loved Francis. It is not even close to the last time.</p>
<p>// reincarnation au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	are we instruments of fate?

**Author's Note:**

> \+ u know when u get sucked back into a fandom after like a year and just. regret.
> 
> \+ anyway i never watched season 2 and this is short and im not totally happy with it but whatever enjoy. also sorry if any of my history is wibbly.
> 
> \+ title from "boat song" by woodkid.

_1560_

This is the time when he is a king and she is a queen. This is not the first time Mary has loved Francis. It is not even close to the last time.

Losing him is a pain she will not get over in this lifetime. It is a pain that will gnaw at her heart until they chop off her head. Maybe that’s what happens when you love someone as much as she loves him—you cannot be apart from them without losing a part of yourself.

 

_1668_

Mary is just a girl—and Francis, he isn’t just a boy. He’s a duke, and dukes don’t fall in love with serving girls. Or, they shouldn’t.

Mary was never good at shouldn’t. She was always getting in trouble and scrapes. Apparently, Francis isn’t good at rules either. He kisses her, or maybe she kisses him. It doesn’t matter really, because he’s been promised to the daughter of an Earl, and she’s low as dirt to his family.

She loves him, and how could she not? He loves her, and he promises he’ll do right be her. The kitchen girl tells her that’s what they all say, but Francis is different. She knows it.

She ends up pregnant, of course. She hasn’t told him, not yet. Not because she’s scared, she’s _not_ , she just doesn’t know how. He _promised_ he’d take care of her.

 

_1746_

Somewhere, there’s a prince trying to take the crown in the name of the Stuart family. Somewhere there’ll be a battle—but that doesn’t stretch to Mary’s life. She and Francis are stretched thin with three children and a croft to tend and a house to keep and an at best meddling, if well meaning, extended family to keep off their backs.

This life is nothing like the one when she was a queen. It’s hard in such a different way. It’s backbreaking, aching hard, but she has a husband she loves and a family who are remarkably healthy, and that’s enough.

 

_1793_

They’re rich and French again—at least, he’s French nobility and she’s his brilliant Scottish wife—and they picked exactly the wrong time for it as revolution grips their country and their king just had his head cut off.

Fleeing isn’t easy. They live like Mary hasn’t lived before, and it’s terrifying, but they make it across into Switzerland.

She’ll always remember him holding her hand as they neared the border. ‘See?’ he’d said. ‘We’re safe. I’ll _always_ keep you safe.’

 

_1862_

Francis has known Mary his whole life. They grew up on the same street, they played together when they could. At some point, he fell in love with her. It’s funny how that happens, and maybe he should have told her.

Now it’s too late, and he’s standing at the docks to wave her off as she heads to America.

She’s smiling and crying all at once when she hugs him goodbye. ‘I’ll miss you so much,’ she says.

He nods. The words _I love you_ get stuck in his throat. ‘I’ll miss you too,’ he says instead, kissing the corner of her mouth. ‘Goodbye, Mary.’

 

_1912_

There’s men who tell Francis he should be ashamed of his wife who ties herself to railings and is in and out of prison. Francis laughs at that. His wife is beautiful and strong and brave as a warrior.

Why would he be anything other than proud of her?

 

_1941_

They were married in that fever when the war broke out. His mother had disagreed—she’d never liked Mary—but in the end she’d come to their rushed little wedding anyway. Mary borrows her mother’s wedding dress

It’s not close to the fairy tale wedding Mary had dreamed of as a child, but it is without a doubt the best day of her life.

And this is, without a doubt, the worst.

She knows what the letter is before she opens it. It’s got the stamp of the military.

Mary will live a long life. She will live her longest life yet, but she will live it without her husband again.

 

_2015_

Mary isn’t usually the kind to kiss boys she doesn’t know at parties—Kenna, maybe, but not Mary. But it’s New Year’s. It’s midnight on New Year’s, and she’s kissing a boy she’s never met before, whose name she doesn’t know, and nothing has ever, ever felt so right before.

Mary does not believe in soul mates. She doesn’t believe in love at first sight or in destiny. But there is something about him. It’s warm and comfortable, and somehow it feels like coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> \+ [tumblr](http://karapalamas.tumblr.com)
> 
> \+ [twitter](http://twitter.com/karapalamas)


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